France

France currently deploys a force of both land-based and sea-based
solid-fueled intermediate-range missiles with thermonuclear (TN) warheads. (1) However, the end of the Cold War and budgetary restrictions have resulted in a scaling back of French strategic and tactical nuclear forces. The major development is President Jacques Chirac's intention to replace one leg of the French nuclear triad, the 18 silo-based S-3D strategic missiles (3,500 km/1 x 1 mt TN) deployed in the Plateau d'Albion, with a nuclear attack version of the Rafale D fighter armed with air-to-surface TN missiles. The ASLP (Air-sol Longue Porteé) missile, jointly planned by France and Britain for development by the French company Aerospatiale, may no longer be a viable alternative because of cost. (2), (3) The ASLP was to have a range two to three times that of the tactical nuclear stand-off missile currently in service, the ASMP (650 km/1 x 300 kt TN). (4) In July 1991, France canceled its S-45 program, which would have produced a land-mobile ICBM similar to the Soviet SS-24 and SS-25 and the U.S. Midgetman missiles. The S-45 was to have had a range of approximately 4,000 km. (5) The land-based leg of the triad may therefore be closed down well before an extended-range air-launch missile capability becomes available, if ever.

French air and ground tactical nuclear missile forces have also been significantly
reduced. The Pluton missile (120 km/1 x 10-25 kt fission), deployed in 1974, was
retired in 1993, and its intended longer-range replacement, the Hades (480 km/1 x
80 kt fission), was drastically cut back in production and only briefly deployed
before being placed in storage in 1992. (8)

These changes in French missile programs respond to the end of the Cold War and
the consequent irrelevance of short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles to
stem an attack by non-existent Warsaw Pact armies or to strike eastern European
democracies clamoring to join NATO. Longer range M5s and stand-off ASMPs
provide a semblance of relevance to a potentially resurgent Russian nuclear threat,
but these strategic force reconfigurations may have as much or more to do with
maintaining France's position of power in the Western Alliance.